The Sixth Nationwide Surveillance of Clinical Isolates from Patients with Six Otolaryngological Field Infections and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern in the Isolated Pathogens in Japan

<p>With the cooperation of the otorhinolaryngological departments of 12 universities in Japan, as well as their 36 affiliated hospitals and clinics, we conducted the sixth nationwide surveillance (the second survey conducted by the Japanese Surveillance Committee, consisting of the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Disease, and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology) on antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and rates of isolation corresponding to 6 otorhinolaryngological diseases.</p><p>The subjects included patients with acute purulent otitis media (148 cases: younger than 6 years of age), chronic otitis media (121 cases), acute sinusitis (158 cases), chronic sinusitis (113 cases), acute tonsillitis (127 cases), and peritonsillar abscess (69 cases: older than 20 years of age) who presented to the medical institutions participating in the survey between December 2015 and June 2017.</p><p>The collected swab or incision samples were cultivated for microbial identification, and the drug susceptibilities of the detected bacteria were measured at the Kitasato University Research Center for Infections and Antimicrobials.</p><p>This surveillance focused on three gram-positive bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus), three gram-negative bacteria (Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and four anaerobic bacteria (anaerobic gram positive cocci, Prevotella spp., Porphyromonas spp., and Fusobacterium spp.).</p><p>Bacterial susceptibilities to 40 antimicrobial drugs were investigated. We were unable to completely resolve the rise in resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus, penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae, penicillin-intermediate resistant S. pneumoniae, beta-lactamase non-producing ampicillin-resistant H. influenzae, and beta-lactamase-producing ampicillin-resistant H. influenzae.</p><p>We suggest promoting the proper usage of antimicrobial agents to avoid the spread of drug resistant bacteria, and that immunization with pneumococcal vaccines is useful to decrease the case of otorhinolaryngological infectious diseases caused by pneumococci.</p>